CogPsychTest 1 Flashcards
attention
cognitive processes that allow us to concentrate on one set of events in our environment while ignoring other events; it controls our mental environment by choosing the events that enter our consciousness
attentional blink
the moment when a person is shifting focus and is unable to attend fully to a new target event
attentional processing
processing an event within the first second after it is captured by sensory storage
attentional spotllight
the cognitive ability to focus or sharpen attention on a previously peripheral stimulus
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
a neurabehavioral disorder that manisfests itself in symptoms such as restlessness, distractiblity, inattention, and difficulty in self control. Pepole with ADHD focus on too many stimuli and have diffculty filtering out unneccessary information in their environment, and are therefore easily distracted
automatic processes
processing that leads to decsions that are nt consciously controlled and which require inimal atetnional resources
behaviorist
a scientist who looks exclusievely at observable actions (what can be seen) rather than hypothesizing about ental process (what cannot be seen)
capacity
the amount of information a memeyr system can hold
capacity theory of attention
the idea that attention is a resource distributed among tasks and that the ability to focus attention varies with the number and complexity of tasks
change blindness
the inability to notice changes between similar scenes or pictures unless they are compared side by side
closed skill
a task that can be realiably accomplished under a variety of predicatable circumstances
cocktail-party phenomenon
the ability to shift attention immediately when a word or voice from a peripheral stream of speech “grabs” your attention
Coding
how infomration is retained in a memory system
cognition
those process by which the sensory input is tranformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used
cognitive neuroscience
the scientific study of the relationship between brain structures, neurological activity, and cognitive function
cognitive psychology
the branch of psychlogy that identifies our mental processes and how they affect our ability to interact with the world around us
cognitive science
an interdisciplinary field that ebraces research and theory from many areas of specialization (e.g., anthropology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, philosophy, as well as cogntivie psychology and cognitive neurosceince) and is devoted to studying mental activity and intelligent behavior
controlled processing
processing that requires conscious, attnetional resources, in contrast with automatic processing
corpus collosum
the largest of a collection of fibers (commissures) that connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain
cortex
the outer surface of the brain, composed of cell bodies and their axons
duration
the length of time information is held in memory sistem
early-selection filter
active when attention is captured by the physical properties of the stimlus (e.g., someone coughing during a leture).
electroencephalogaphy
the oldest neuroimaging techinque in which a cap containing electrodes is placed on a person’s head; the electrodes reflect the total electrical output of neurons near them, which varies according to the person’s state of arousal. This activity is shown as wavest hat vary in height (amplitude) and how rapidly they repeat (frequency). EEG identifies broad ares of the brain involvedi n specific cognitive events
event-related potentionals
momentary chagnes in the EEG signal that occu as an immediate response to something the participant has observed or thought about.
focused attentional processing
the process by which the atttentional system deeply process stimuli in the environment
fogetting
the inability to recall information in a memory system
forebrain
the outer portion of the brain that surrounds the midbrian and is composed of the cortex; the forebrain regulates higher mental process, such as complex learning, memor, thought, and language
frontal lobe
lobe of the brain that performs many functions, especially those related to memory, problem solving, and ocmmunication
functional magnetic resonansce imaging
a neuroimaging techniique that locates areas of cognitive activity by measuring blod changes, called BOLD response. This electromagnetic system creates an image of the electical activity by indirectly measuring the amound of blood flow and therefore the amount of brain activity
gestalt psychology
the study of principles that determine how people’s perception of the hwole is derived fomr their percpetion of individual parts
habituation
sitution in which we do not orient toward a stimulus because it is no longer novel and does not capture our attention
hemisphere
split down the middle, form front to back, the brain contains two hemispheres, each serving different cognitive functions
hemispheric neglect
an attentional (not visual) disease in which individuals are only able to see half of what they should be able to see (i.e, the right visual field only) Hemineglect is a symptom of a broader neurological difficulty (parietal lobe syndrome)
hindbrain
the bottom or ventral portion of the brian, which controls automatic process that regulate life-support funcitons, such as breathing, heart rate, swalloing, an sleep cycles
human factors
research hat focuses on our mental capcities and how they contrain our actions, which helps us to perfrom tasks more efficiently and safeyl
inattentional blindness
falliure to notice stimuli when the focus of attention is elsewhere (e.g., performing two attenitona-demanding tasks simultaneously, such as driving and talking on a cell phone).
information processing
a way of thinking about human behavior: analyzing the flow of events, in both our external and internal environments, shows how past knowledge helps us understand present events
late-selection filter
the unconscious retention of stimuli not necessarily related to current mental process, but always relevant or pertinent (e.g., the sound of your name, the odor of gas, someone yelling fire)
late-selection theory
this theory presumesthat even supposedly unattended stimuli enter the sensory storage system and are only filtered out late in the process if not relevant
localization of function
a hypothesis that different fucntions of thought are performed in different areas in the brain and only those areas can control it
masking
when events occur siultaneously, or less than 80msec apart, the second event can interfere wit hteh first event and displace it form sensory storage: one event hides the other from conscious awereness
memory
the mental operations that store information as well as recover and retreive it at appropriate times
midbrain
the middle portion of the brain, which serves a sa relay center for sensroy information entering the brain, such as hearing and vision; a bundle of fibers assocaited with voluntary movement also passes thorugh the midbrain
mindlessnes
failing to evalutate what you are doing; performing activites by rote (note paying attention)
neurogensis
a process in which brain cells grow new connections, which occurs before birth and thorughout life
neuroimaging
methods that reveal the structure and functioning of the brain and show the relationship between neurological activity and cognitive processes
neurons
specialized cells in the brain composed of three parts (a) cell body that process and transmits information; (b) fibers, called dendrites, tha conduct input to the cell body; and © an axon that conducts celectircal activity from the cell bdoy to a junction with other cells called a synapse.
neurotransmitters
packets of chemicals that fill the gaps (synapses) between neurons electical signal is transmitted via the axon
occipital lobe
the area of the cortex that does the comples job of processing signals fro mthe eyes
open skills
a task that requries conscious attention to perfomr in unpredicatble circumstances (e.g., swimming in a bakyard pool vs. swimming in the ocean).
orienting reflexes
the basic biological reaction to turn our attention to any change in the enviornment; a universal component of the human cognitive architechture
parietal lobes
each hemishphere contains one (Locate aboce the occipital lobe) that registers sensory experienes such as touch, taste, and sight
parkinson’s disease
an irreversible neurodegenrative diseas casued by the death of dopmain-producing neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain; a classic sysmtom is muscle tremors. Advanced stages of the diseas are accompanied by by attentional deficits, such as difficuly enagning in a na ctivity that is not well learned or fomulating a hypothesis, suppressing a habitual resosne or resisting temptation, or staying focus on a task
partial report procedure
a method in which a person I aksed to recall particullar items in a briefly presented array of mutile items
positron emission tomography
a neuroimaging technique in which a radioactive dose of clucose is injected into the bloodstream that emits particles called postirons as it is procesd by neurons. Blood flow to specific aras of the brain can then be indirectly measrued when the brain is scanned to detect enery released when the postitrons interacct with the electrongs of the brain cells. this technique is helpful in determining the specific parts of the brain that are involved uring ca cognitive event
preattentive processing
the ability to focus on a relevent event to the exlusion of all else, which can happen so quickly that the perceie is unaware of all the stimuli that have been excluded
precategorical storage
sensory information that has been stroed before it can be categorized
repetition blindness
a decrease in the ability to perceive repeated stimuli during a rapid serial presention of events
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
rTMS is a neuroimaging techinque that influences an area of the brain by creating a weak electrical curent using magnets over a person’s head. Repetitive magnetic pulses can increase or decreas a specific brain area’s activity, which helps identify that area’s function
response latency (response time; reaction time)
the amount of time tit taks for participants to make a response; usually considered the time betwee nthe moemtn a stimulus is presented and the moemnt a participant makes a response
saccades
ballistic movemtns of the eyes that permit rapid visual fixation from one point to another, at which time most information is gathered
sensory information storage
a buffer memory system that hosts an incoming streatm of infomration long enough for us to pay attention to it and seperates incoming infomraiotn from everything else occuring in our cognitive systme we are rearely conscious of its action in everyday life.
simultanagnosia
a neuropsychological condition, sometimes caused by stoke, in which the individual is unable to recognize two or more objects at the same time (also referred to as Balint’s syndrom)
span of apprehension
what we can attent to at one time without an incredible effort of attetnion
split brain
a condition that results when one hemisphere of the brain has little knowledge of the singals of the other hemisphere; this occurs when the corpus collosum is not fully developed or has been surgically severed
stroop effect
it takes longer to name the color of ink a word is printed in when the name of the color and the color of the ink do not match
subitizing
The ability to determine small numbers of items presente simultanesouly; four or fewer items preseented stimultanously; four or fewer items can be estimated automatically, but more than four items have to be counted
symbolic distance effect
the more dicriminable two objects are, the faster the judgment of which is larger or smaller
synapse
a junction that allolws neurons to communicate
temporal lobes
each hemisphere contains one that processes sound, language, and long-term memory; damage to one does not necessarily produce complete loss of cognitive functioniing
transfer of trianing
a technique researchers use to determine whether one method of presenting infomration contributes to better understanding than another methods, often determined by whether the participant can use the information in different circumstanes
trepanning
a surgical process practiced since ancient times in which a hole is made in the skull
where/what circuits
two brian circuits process infomraiton about the spatial location of objects and lallow us t name them. The where cirtcuit runs from the visual cortex to the parietal lobe for visual stimulation and from the auditory cotex to the partietal lobe for sound stimuli. THe what circuit runs from the visual or auditory cotex to the temporal lobe, whcih allws memories to be activated in orer to recognize the object
